European Group for Accreditation and Liaison of Blood-Tissues and Cells Establishments

The organisations involved in the activities with Substances of Human Origin (SoHO), saw their activities severely impacted by the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. This crisis has evidenced a fragile reality of the SOHO in Europe, and SoHO organisations were placed under unprecedented stress, putting their capacity to provide the adequate care needed at risk. Beyond COVID-19 crisis, in the recent years, European countries have experienced several other crisis, which caused the disruption of routine activities of Procurement Organisations (PO) and Blood and Tissue Establishments (BE/TE), affecting temporary the ability to assess and evaluate donors, or prepare, issue and distribute Blood, Tissues and Cells (BTC) at local, regional or national levels. EGALiTE (European Group for Accreditation and Liaison of Blood-Tissues and Cells Establishments) aims to promote the harmonization of practices among PO, BE and TE, encourage sustainability and collaboration among stakeholders and the implementation of strategies required to improve accessibility and sufficiency of SoHO at European level. The outcomes of EGALITE aim to support the activities performed in Member States with distinct technical capacities by: 'Ä¢ Establishing an European Accreditation Program for HSC registers, PO, BE/TE 'Äì as a mean to achieve mutual recognition amongst SoHO organisations; 'Ä¢ Develop an efficient database of resources (BTC, facilities, activities and innovative techniques, etc.) which will be used to design sufficiency plans and promote the collaboration among professionals and CAs, to ensure an adequate supply of BTC in the different MS; 'Ä¢ Provide contingency plans to assist the responsible persons in the decision making process during crisis; 'Ä¢ Implement a Technical Assistance Program to assist the implementation of good practices and optimization of activities in the different Member States.